Pep Guardiola wants Vicente del Bosque to stay as Spain manager and lead country forward

Pep Guardiola believes Vicente del Bosque is 'the right man' to lead Spain forward after the European and world champions crashed out of the World Cup.

The current Bayern Munich boss and former Spain midfielder revealed he was sad to see the demise of the team that won three successive international tournaments, but admitted that changes had to be made to the side.

Del Bosque has been in charge of the Spanish national side since 2008 and is under contract until 2016, but his team's shock exit from the tournament has made him reconsider his future, with an announcement expected next week.

Guardiola worked with a number of the players involved in Spain's disastrous World Cup campaign while he was the coach of Barcelona, including Xavi Hernandez, Gerard Pique, Cesc Fabregas and Pedro, and lamented their early exit from Brazil following the emphatic defeats to Holland and Chile.

'Spain made me very sad,' he said.

'Football owes these players so much as they have done so much for the sport, which means they deserved to be able to compete in the final stages.'